A few years ago, Doritos and Microsoft teamed up to release a free game on Xbox LIVE called Doritos Crash Course. It was a 2-D platforming obstacle course game where you played as your Xbox Avatar, and it was similar to games like WipeOut (based on the popular game show). Now they’ve released a sequel, but is it truly free-to-play like the first one? Read on to find out!

Just like in the first game, you play as your Avatar in this 2-D platform jumping challenge. Run, jump, swing on vines, wall jump, and more to get to the goal as fast as you can. Race against other CPU opponents to try and place first, second, or third. Or you can also play multiplayer online. Graphically, the game is a drastic improvement over the first, with varied environments like jungles and snowy lands. You can even unlock branching pathways to find more secrets and goodies.

As you play, you’ll collect hidden stars scattered about, and you’ll get even more at the end of the level if you complete certain objectives. Collecting stars is key to unlocking new levels and worlds, but you also won’t be able to unlock anything without coins either. When you first start the game, you get a few coins to play around with. But once you’ve spent all those, you have to buy more coins with; you guessed it, MS points. So the game really isn’t truly free-to-play after all. You CAN earn coins by playing the game, but it’s a very s-l-o-w process. Coins are also use to buy power-ups in the in-game store, too. It would’ve been nice if the game was all free like the first one, especially since the sequel is such a vast improvement (and tons better than the WipeOut games, trust me, I’ve reviewed them).

Kid Factor:

Doritos Crash Course 2 is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence. Your Avatar can get smacked around and knocked about, but all that happens is that you get dizzy for a bit or fall into the water. Reading skill is helpful for the instructions, but the game is pretty easy to figure out just by playing. Younger gamers might get frustrated with the more difficult levels, though. But if your kids love shows like WipeOut, it may be worth downloading this ‘sort of’ free game to see if they’ll like it.